Business entities that provide products and services have limited opportunities to inform prospective customers about their products and services so as to entice the prospective customers to purchase. Many products, including insurance and other financial products and services, cannot be accurately priced or responsibly suggested until a prospective customer has provided a substantial quantity of relevant, personal information. In such cases, prospective customers are required to fill out a “long form” so that all of the necessary personal information can be used as a basis for the quote. This requirement is a barrier to initial sale, cross-sell, up-sell, and replacement sale opportunities, because prospective customers are unwilling to invest the time and energy needed to complete the long form or to disclose the personal information. Initial sale, cross-sell, up-sell, and replacement sale opportunities may be triggered by life-events (e.g., a marriage or birth of a child) or by a marketing campaign. Prospective customers may be motivated to shop for the relevant products or may simply be curious. They may be interested in comparison shopping across multiple product providers or not. In any event, prospective customers are typically busy and wary of providing personal and/or sensitive information in a pre-sale context.
In one example of such a barrier, a property and casualty insurer (“InsCo”) may seek to sign up uninsured (or underinsured) individuals and may seek to coax presently insured individuals to replace their current coverage with products that InsCo offers. However, to provide an accurate quote for an insurance policy, a prospective customer may need to answer dozens of questions. For an automobile insurance policy, these questions may include: where the prospective customer lives and works, the prospective customer's approximate credit rating, information about the number and types of automobiles, the prospective customer's age and gender, and information necessary for conducting some level of background check (e.g., a driver's license number).
In another example, a diversified financial services business entity (“FinCo”) may offer a number of life insurance, retirement, and investment products. This broad product offering may be difficult to navigate for a prospective customer. However, to narrow the product offerings in a helpful and appropriate way, FinCo would need to conduct a careful needs analysis requiring the prospective customer to answer dozens of questions. Specifically, the needs analysis questioning would gather information about income, assets, liabilities, risk tolerance, family relationships, and so on.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art computer interface for gathering long-form information from a prospective customer. This computer interface may be, for example, a form on a publicly accessible web page that allows a prospective customer to obtain a quote and possibly purchase an insurance policy. (The culmination of the purchase process is commonly referred to as “binding” because the policy forms a binding contract between the carrier and the customer.) For purposes of this discussion, it will be assumed (to simplify the discussion) that InsCo has provided the computer interface as a self-service option for prospective customers to purchase insurance at any time and from any computer accessible to the Internet.
The information requested in long form 200 may include personal information 210, property information 220, and other information 230. Personal information 210 typically includes sufficient information to uniquely identify a prospective customer and to specifically determine where the prospective customer lives. Personal information 210 may be used by InsCo to access internal or external databases of information such as (or relating to) prior insurance claims, existing judgments and liens, criminal history, and credit information.
Property information 220 typically includes sufficient information to identify all characteristics of a particular property that are relevant to the processes of rating and/or underwriting insurance coverage for that property. For example, long-form information for an automobile insurance policy may include questions such as the make, model, year, and current mileage of the vehicle. The vehicle identification number (VIN) may also be requested along with the address where the primary driver works. This information may be used to estimate likely repair costs, claim history, and risk of being involved in an accident while the primary driver is commuting. Experience has shown that some prospective customers may not know all of this information and may need to even walk to their car to determine its current mileage, VIN number, etc.
In another example, long-form information for a home-owner's policy may include questions such as the property address, construction materials for various aspects of the property, square footage, build quality, special features (e.g., pools, garages, and out-buildings) availability and utilization of security systems, and the distance to a fire hydrant and fire station. Some of this information may be used to access external databases of information relating to prior insurance claims for the property, appraisal values, crime, weather, and other factors relevant to the risks associated with insuring the property. Property information 220 may be used in combination with externally sourced data to estimate likely reconstruction costs, value of personal belongings, and risk of fire and other perils. Experience has shown that some prospective customers may not know all of this information and may need to reference various documents and examine their property before completing this information.
Other information 230 may include questions relating to typical surcharges, coverage options, or discount programs. For example, for an automobile insurance policy, InsCo may ask about the prospective customer's prior accident history, the existence of an anti-theft system (e.g., alarm or tracking/disabling system), and the possibility of a multi-car or multi-policy discount. In another example, for a homeowner's policy, InsCo may ask about prior claims, a monitored security alarm, and the possibility of multi-policy discounts.
Once a prospective customer has completed long-form 200, indicated by clicking the “Next” button, an online rating system may be provided by InsCo to gather any required external data and calculate a rate for a policy to cover the identified property. A premium may then be calculated based on that rate in conjunction with any selected policy coverages, limits, deductibles, and/or options.
FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art process flow for quoting property and casualty business. Process flow 300 is entered at P&C Start 301. The process begins with collection of personal identification and contact information 302, which corresponds with personal information 210. The process continues with collection of property information 303, which corresponds to property information 220. Additional data, such as that collected in other information 230, may also be collected prior to the next step of process 300. The process continues by retrieving existing data 304. The existing data may be internal data and/or external data representing or derived from historical data. At this point, the information collected and gathered in steps 302-304 is fed into a rating engine to generate a rate 305, which represents the risk exposure to InsCo of covering the identified property and/or associated liability for the prospective customer. For many insurance products, the price of the product may depend on a number of coverages, limits, and/or deductibles selected by a prospective customer at 306. Once these selections have been made, a quote is generated at 307. The customer may choose to change his or her selections to adjust the policy premium (e.g., price) or may choose to accept the policy at 308. There are a number of restrictions that limit insurance carriers' ability to suggest coverages, limits, and/or deductibles, thus a prospective customer may be left to self-advise as to which options are appropriate to select based solely on price.
The final step in the process is to bind the policy at step 309, which typically requires payment of at least a portion of the premium. Process flow 300 may vary for different products and for different insurance carriers. Some products and/or carriers may require an underwriting step prior to binding a policy.
FIG. 3 illustrates a prior art process flow for performing a needs analysis of a prospective customer with respect to certain life insurance, retirement, and investment products offered by FinCo. Process flow 400 starts at NA Start 401. The process begins by collecting personal information and contact information 402, which corresponds with personal information 210. Next, personal financial information is collected at step 403, which may include summary or detailed information about personal and/or family income, assets, and liabilities. The process continues by collecting answers to a questionnaire 404 aimed at generating a risk profile for the prospective customer. Based on the prospective customer's financial and risk profile information, the process may identify appropriate products at step 405, based at least in part on local, state, and/or federal rules and regulations as well as internal guidelines. These products may then be presented to the prospective customer at step 406 as a menu or proposal. Depending on the specific products, the process may continue with an underwriting process or may allow immediate purchase and/or investment.
Experience has shown that prospective customers tend to lose interest in obtaining a quote and stop providing information at various points in the process. In some instances, prospective customers appear to be unwilling to take the time to answer all of the questions and in other instances they appear to be unwilling to provide the quantity of personal information requested. Experience also shows that many of these customers would be willing to provide all of the requested information eventually if given sufficient incentive to do so and if a certain level of trust has been established or value has been provided.